


Noise

by space_gay001



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: Charlie learns to cope with living, Gen, Light Angst, Mental Breakdown, me? projecting my mental issues onto fictional characters? its more likely than you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24086344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_gay001/pseuds/space_gay001
Summary: At some point, the survivors free Charlie from the throne's power and now she lives with them. It's harder than she expects.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	Noise

It was too quiet. Oh, there was a pleasant enough din surrounding her; the camp was always active with so many people. But inside…inside the silence pressed against the edges of her brain, her skull like a too-full waterskin threatening to burst. It had been a relief at first. Her liberation from the control of Them. She hadn’t even known how much sway They held over her until she was ripped from Their grasp. It was easy to run back into her sister’s arms, easier than she expected to begin the process of forgiving Maxwell. That was then.

Weeks passed and the dust had settled. They were still working on a way home, but she could tell many of the survivors had become content with the world they found themselves in. She had hoped she could feel the same, but the absence of Their voices in her head had proved to be difficult to manage. It wasn’t so bad when she was busy. That didn’t happen often, but there were shining moments when there was work to be done, and her own voice filled the silence in her head just enough to calm her into a state of bliss.

But the rest of the time, she had to live with the silence. She tried talking about it; Winona was a good listener and Charlie felt better after their conversations, but she couldn’t always be around to lend an ear. Her sister was kept especially busy, being the only one with any significant mechanical skills. Maxwell was the only other person she knew well, but she wasn’t ready to share this with him. He might have even understood, having been a puppet of Them same as her, but every time she thought about it her heart clenched with fear. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him with her secrets, it was just…hard when she had been hurt before.

Now, she was alone in the forest. Gathering sticks and grass was about all she was good for. A queen fallen from grace. Her body had yet to catch up to her sudden loss of power. She had no idea how Maxwell had coped; she became winded after carrying light burdens and could barely swing an axe.

She could hear creatures skittering about in the woods. Most had calmed down and rarely attacked the survivors. Charlie found herself wishing they were more of a threat, if only to give her aching mind something to do. Focusing was hard enough with so many thoughts swirling in her head, trying to fill the empty space. But moments like this, just existing with no purpose, were agony.

Everything that passed her mind was magnified tenfold. Stick and grass, that was what she should focus on. But then she would have to return to camp, and face everyone’s fleeting glances they took when they thought she didn’t notice, some terrified, some furious, and she would have to hide away while Winona was out. What was Winona doing again? She was travelling, looking for some scarce resource or another, how long was it going to take? Maxwell might be there, she didn’t know if she could stand to be around him now, with how overwhelming everything was. A melody repeated over and over, it had been playing underneath all the other thoughts for hours. How could a person’s insides be so loud, yet so quiet at the same time? The sounds around her were muffled now, everything except the birds, their calls pierced her ears. Sticks and grass, just focus. The air was still and it felt like wading through stone. Where was the wind? Why was it so damn _hot_?

Charlie whimpered as everything became too much. She saw a sapling in front of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch it, instead falling to her knees and gripping her head tightly as though covering her ears would stop the cacophony in her head. She wanted to scream. She always wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. People would hear, and worry, or worse, suspect her of something sinister. God, she needed to scream. Surely no one would hear, as far out into the woods as she was. She opened her mouth, but it wasn’t a scream that came out, it was a song.

The melody that her brain was quietly repeating suddenly became the only thing she heard. It was a simple one, one that she had loved as a child. She had latched onto the comforting memory and now belted out the lyrics like she was calling out for help. Moments passed as she yelled the song into the still air. The other noise was still there, circling below the surface of her mind, but the song was loud enough that she could finally breath.

Charlie spent longer than she should have out in the woods, gathering twigs until the sun went down and belting out her song. It wasn’t peaceful, exactly, but it was the closest thing to being still she had felt all day. When she got tired of the song, she found another. She went through every song she could ever remember liking, humming where she didn’t know all the words. By the time it was dark, and she approached to flickering firelight, she was exhausted but content. Her body still remembered the pain of the light, but she forced herself into the circle of warmth around the flames. People still stared, but it didn’t feel as venomous as before.

Willow was tending the fire, as usual. Charlie noticed the dwindling pile of firewood at the girl’s feet and offered some of her own sticks that she had gathered. Willow smiled and gave her a thumbs up. Charlie smiled back. Little steps. When she lay in her tent that night, the walls didn’t seem so constricting. The chaos in her head would start up again, and the endless cycle of living in the Constant would go on. But at least she had her music.

**Author's Note:**

> this is super unpolished and spur of the moment, im writing to cope, let this join the ranks of the quarantine fanfic boom


End file.
